Anila Zulfiqar

Anila Zulfiqar is known for her dreamlike landscapes which she has been doing for almost a decade. Her passion for colors dates back to her early childhood when she used to paint trees, clouds and mountains like other children. She was always encouraged and appreciated by her parents. Her father was fond of reading and encouraged his children to develop the habit.

“In my childhood my father usually asked my elder sister to read an article from the kids’ page of the Pakistan Times written by Alice Faiz using the penname ‘Appa Jan’. On Fridays there used to be a reading competition at home. My father would give prize to the best reader. In this way we developed reading habit,” she vividly recalls. She also attributes her disciplined personality to her father’s training.

Anila had her schooling at the PR Saint Andrew’s High School, Lahore. Drawing was one of her favourite subjects. Her teacher Mr Ejaz helped her a great deal in learning the basic academic skills. Later she opted for fine arts at the Queen Mary College Lahore and further developed her painting and drawing skills. She is grateful to her teachers Ms Kishwar Rizvi, Ms Muneera Alam and Ms Shahida. At the college she won several prizes in poster-making competitions and was placed on the roll of honor for performances in visual arts.

She did her Masters in Fine Arts from the Institute of Arts and Design, University of Punjab, Lahore, with gold medal in 1999. During her academic years she was inspired by her teachers Duree Waseem, Maliha Agha, Rahat Naveed, Kehkshan Jafri and Zulqurnain Haider.

Though she also worked as a cartoonist and an art teacher for some time, painting remained her first love. Displaying her works since 1994, she has a good number of group exhibition as well as two solo shows to her credit. Currently, she is doing an M.Phil. in studio practice and her research work is in its final stages. She loves gardening, reading and spending time with her family. Anila is optimistic about the art scene of Lahore because of the growing number of art institutions and galleries in the city.

While painting landscapes she uses rich colors and thick layers of paint that creates a wide range of textures. “Nature always inspires me. At the beginning of my artistic career, I would usually paint landscapes from my imagination. I feel the pure expressions of an artist are those which reflect his or her inner feelings. Every person has his own imaginative world and all my works evolved from the world that is my own,” she says.

Over the last few years she has worked on a series of paintings portraying the rapidly vanishing architecture of old Lahore. “I have a deep association with old Lahore buildings since my childhood. When I was a child, I would count the number of windows and doors of these buildings. The projected galleries, interiors, motifs and specially the construction date of the buildings always inspire me. I think they give me a feeling of pride and cultural identity at the time when we are very much influenced by Western lifestyles,” she narrates.

She relates the character of these buildings to the females and their changing roles in the society when they grow up. “I felt these buildings are narrating the life story of a female. When she is born, a title is given to her like a hording fixed on a building. Gradually various kinds of other boards are fixed according to different identities and social responsibilities assigned to her. At one stage, the buildings are almost covered with boards in such a way that they lose their identity. It is just like females sacrificing their selves to perform various socially assigned roles; they are surrounded by electric wires which seems to me the marking of her limitations in our society. These buildings have their character, mood and history. They represent human beings and that is the reason I paint this subject,” she says.

She believes in research, study of nature and a continuous process of questioning. “The curiosity and questions evolving in the process lead to the innovative ideas which further transform into sublime visuals,” she says.